My aim is to produce an analytical report on how Sainsbury manages
resources. I’m going to show the importance of the human resources
management to the business, providing a comprehensive overview of all
four of the following functions and focussing in depth on one of the
functions:
* Human resources planning
* Recruitment and selection
* Training and development
* Performance management
Sainsbury’s Supermarket Ltd is part of J Sainsbury plc, one of the
country’s leading retailers. J Sainsbury operates three separate store
chains and a bank in the United Kingdom and a Supermarket chain in the
USA.
With over 450 stores nation-wide last year sales of over £18.4 billion
were generated. Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Ltd, parts of J Sainsbury’s
group plc are one of the UK’s largest retail organisations. Sainsbury
is a very popular supermarket, but what many people don’t realise is
that the group also includes Sainsbury’s Bank, Home base and
International Holdings, spanning locations across North America and
Egypt.
Human resources planning used to be called manpower planning. It has
been defined as: ‘the activity of management which is aimed at
coordinating the requirements for and the availability of different
types of employee.’
The reasons for human resources planning.
Human resources planning is used to encourage employers to develop
clear links between their business plans and their HR plans. Also to
control staff costs and the numbers of people employed effectively. To
make it more easier for them to work our where they most value their
organisation and to create an Equal Opportunities policy.
The human resources function involves the management of people. The
human resources function exists in all organisations, either as one of
the roles of a general manager in a small firm or as a different
department in a large company like Sainsbury’s. The key areas of this
function area:
Training and development
------------------------
To allow new employees at Sainsbury to settle in quickly; to help
employees develop and contribute more to the work of the
organisation. Training is also to help the employees reach the
standards of their customers needs e.g.:
Customer Service Assistant:
Within this role employees will be ensuring that the customers at
Sainsbury’s should receive a great service. Employees will be fully
trained as a cashier, but may be also required to help customers with
the selection of goods and packaging. Good communication skills and
willingness to help others are amongst the skills required for this
role.
Appraisal
Appraisal interviews are used to review an individual’s performance in
a job and to plan for the future. This is ideal for new Managers or as
a refresher for existing Managers who would benefit from a greater
understanding of the appraisal process. It is also appropriate for
support staffs that have employees reporting to them.
Appraisal at Sainsbury is to encourage employees to achieve their
potential; to support employees in their attempts to achieve personal
goals. This system is designed to improve the performance of the
workers at Sainsbury so Sainsbury could have a strong and good quality
workforce.
Recruitment and Selection
=========================
Sainsbury has to ensure that organisational objectives are met; bring
in new ideas; to appoint suitably qualified and skilled employees.
Recruitment and selection is to control the inflow and outflow of the
business e.g. hiring and firing.
Dismissal
---------
The HRM department at Sainsbury has to under stand the procedures
involved in lawfully dismissing an employee. The procedures will be a
verbal warning, written warning and a final warning. . The employee
has to sign a contract of an agreement that he or she cannot be
dismissed unfairly. This is to protect both employer and employee at
Sainsbury. All employers must issue a statement of written particulars
to new employees within eight weeks of employment and ensure all
existing employees have written particulars of employment.
E2 EXTERNEL INFLUENCES
Sainsbury Local Employment Trends
This gives a general idea of the availability of labour and helps the
business to know whether it will be difficult to recruit.
The latest quarterly data from the Labour Force Survey estimates that
148,000 Birmingham residents are in employment, made up of 84,000
males and 64,000 females. Sainsbury have to change their recruitment
policies in order to attract more female employees within the
business.
Economic Activity rates are one of the key indicators for anyone
interested in labour market statistics. Statistics from the Labour
Force Survey (LFS) provide the most up to date economic activity
rates. The table below highlights the fact that Birmingham has a
higher rate of resident workforce participation than Wales but is
slightly below the UK average.
% Economic Activity Rate of Resident Population
All Residents
of Working Age
Male Residents
of Working Age
Female Residents
of Working Age
Birmingham
77.1
82.4
71.9
Wales
73.6
78.8
67.9
Great Britain
78.8
84.3
72.8
The table below compares the economic activity rate for total persons
by age group for Birmingham, Wales and Great Britain for the Quarter
December 2000 to February 2001. Wales has a significantly lower
participation rate for those aged 50 to retirement age. Sainsbury’s
wants to change the percentage of retirement within Birmingham .to
recruit over 50’s Sainsbury have to offer more employment incentives
as the number unemployed is decreasing.
Economic Activity Rates of All Persons by Age Group
All Persons of
Working Age
Persons Aged
19 -19
20 -24
25 - 34
35 - 49
50 -
Retirement
16 - 24
25 - 49
Birmingham
77.1
#
70.8
84.9
81.4
68.1
69.7
83.0
Wales
73.6
65.3
77.6
81.7
81.0
58.6
71.9
81.3
Great Britain
78.8
63.6
75.2
84.5
85.4
70.3
70.0
85.0
Workforce Employment Statistics
The Office for National Statistics has replaced the Annual Employment
Survey with the Annual Business Inquiry. The ABI for 2000 estimated a
total of 168,100 employees working in Birmingham.
Sainsbury employ 200 – 250 employees a day. Employment changes have
dramatically influenced the growth within the online grocery
providers, over the past three years; the number of employees has
increased significantly.
The table and chart below compares the industrial structure of
Birmingham, Wales and Great Britain by broad industrial group as
recorded in the Annual Business Inquiry for December 2000.
Employment In Birmingham, Wales & Great Britain 2000
Broad Industrial Group
Birmingham
Wales
Great Britain
Total number
employed
% Of
Birmingham Total
Total number
employed
% Of
Wales total
Total number
employed
% Of
GB total
Agriculture and fishing
250
0.1
12,700
1.2
243,900
1.0
Energy and water
1,900
1.1
8,150
0.8
172,200
0.7
Manufacturing
15,400
9.2
200,950
18.6
3,799,850
15.1
Construction
6,900
4.1
56,750
5.3
1,126,600
4.5
Distribution, hotels and restaurants
35,700
21.2
240,800
22.3
6,010,250
23.9
Transport and communications
7,900
4.7
44,600
4.1
1,525,500
6.1
Banking, finance and insurance, etc
33,050
19.7
130,900
12.1
4,952,450
19.7
Public administration, education & health
53,550
31.7
326,050
30.3
6,049,650
24.1
Other services
13,650
8.1
56,650
5.3
1,260,150
5.0
Total
168,100
100.0
1,077,550
100.0
25,140,550
100.0
Unemployment rate in Birmingham
-------------------------------
The unemployment rate within Birmingham is 50% less then the general
employment rate within the UK. However, this is good news for
Sainsbury’s because they have more people to employ within the
business.
At Sainsbury they are essentially four key stages involved, in the
process of human resources planning.
Stock tacking
-------------
Stock tacking asks questions on what the quality of staff available in
Sainsbury? It uses the following techniques.
Job analysis – this means gathering information on the availability of
all the jobs at Sainsbury.
Skills audit – this is a survey for all existing staff, to see what
skills, qualifications and experiences the have.
Performance review- this involves looking at the performance of all
employees in order to: identify staff potential and to identify where
staff have move training needs.
Forecasting Supply
------------------
This asks questions on ‘how many employees will Sainsbury have in the
future?’ It there fore means looking at internal external sources of
labour.
When Sainsbury looks at the total supply of labour within the company,
it is very important to look at the labour turn over.
There are three main ways to calculate employee turnover.
Annual labour turn over index- tells you what percentages of the
workforce left in a year.
Stability index- this calculation gives Sainsbury a good idea of how
long employees are staying within the organisation.
Sickness- sickness is another influence on the internal supply of
labour. If there is a high level of sickness absences, then this
affects the supply of labour very badly. If the absence is due to a
genuine reason then there is not much you can do in the short term.
Sainsbury has to be aware of sickness absences to maintain a strong
workforce. In most cases sickness absences be bogus. If this situation
is not tackled then this can cause poor morale amongst the employees
who are attending work. The workers will feel that the managers are
‘soft’ for letting people get away with it.
Sickness absences needs monitoring against:
· Performance in the previous year
· Trends in other organisations in the same industrial sector
· National sickness absence figures
Ways of controlling and monitoring against:
· Keeping proper records of sickness for all staff
· A policy of sick visiting by the personnel manager or by the company
nurse
· Return to work interviews after one day of absence; this puts
pressure on people who regularly have the odd day off ill but do not
want the embarrassment of an interview each time
· A clear statement to staff that regular periods of unexplained
sickness could lead to a disciplinary procedure or even dismissal
Accident
Sainsbury’s have to keep records on their accident rates within the
organisation like all other organisations. Better health and Safety
procedures and the use of EU, have reduced the level of accidents at
workplaces. A large factor has been the closure of many unsafe,
old-fashioned factories, steel work and coalmines.
Succession
This only applies to employees at line manager level and above.
Succession planning should include an estimate of what managerial jobs
will be available in the future, analyse what skills those jobs will
require and to, review the strengths and weaknesses of existing
staff. For example the human resources department at Sainsbury to
make sure that when someone in the customer service department leaves
then they have to train someone else to take over the job.
Local skills shortages
----------------------
Sainsbury’s and the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) have formed a
partnership to provide an estimated 15,000 hours of training per week
to help tackle Birmingham’s and the UK ‘s IT skills shortage.
The £15 million venture will serve IT qualifications to shoppers by
creating three new I.T. Now at Sainsbury's learning centres. Led by
the LSC's National Contracts Service and Newbury and Reading Colleges,
the new initiative is designed to take business-relevant courses to
learners rather than waiting for learners to come to them. Sainsbury
need to be aware of these local shortages in order to develop their
own training programme to make sure there is a constant supply of
trained workers for their company.
Shoppers will be able to combine their weekly shop with IT tuition,
which will be available during supermarket opening hours at the
in-store IT learning centres. The tuition can be followed at the
student's own pace and over 200 courses will be available. All courses
will provide industry-recognised training in a variety of programmes
from basic word processing to advanced courses in web design and
digital cameras.
The concept was first tested at the Sainsbury's Calcot (Reading) store
where 3,000people graduated over 22 months. The success of this
project, supported by Newbury and Reading Colleges, has led to the
project's wider rollout throughout England.
Newbury and Reading Colleges, continuing to work in partnership, will
provide support during the roll out and for the co-ordination of
activities within the centres.
Competition for employees
Sainsbury has to be well aware of local competitors within the local
area who are expanding or looking for more employees. Sainsbury have
to ensure that their workers enjoy working at Sainsbury and are
motivated in the job so it’s unlikely for them to leave. If the
employees at Sainsbury would move to the competitors such as Asda and
Tesco then HRM department is responsible to plan to fill the vacancies
left. High street supermarkets stores such as Sainsbury have not been
very affected through employment changes, because they have been
established for several years. Sainsbury supermarket stores are quite
large in size, usually employing 200 – 250 employees a day.
Availability of Labour
----------------------
The amount of labour in a particular area depends on how many people
they can employ. Now a days transport allows Sainsbury to recruit from
further areas but some provision still needs to be made, e.g. a work
bus. If Sainsbury had a little labour availability and they were
forced to recruit people from further areas, then the HRM department
of Sainsbury will have to organise some type of transport for the
workers. If many employees were recruited form one particular area
then a bus could be a viable, with a central pick up point.
E3
--
Recruitment and Selection
-------------------------
Recruitment and selection is one of the most important parts of the HR
department at Sainsbury. Equal opportunities legislation governing
recruitment and selection processes, those responsible for recruitment
and selection need to develop there interviewing skills towards the
competence/behavioural approaches to ensure stronger validity of
candidates to performance on the job.
When Sainsbury is recruiting a new member into the company, they need
to produce a set of documents, which enables them to complete their
process efficiently. The first document is a Job specification – a job
description explains the mains tasks required in a job role. All
organisations have a job description for every job from the cleaner to
the assistant manager.
When drawing up a job description the personnel department has a
number of alternatives. These are:
The line manager can draw up a description or the existing jobholder
or the Human Resources Manager can also interview the jobholder.
The main features of a job description are:
* The job title
* The location of the job
* What the organisation does
* The main purpose of the job
* The tasks required in the job role (in detail)
* The standards that the job holder will require to achieve
* Pay and other benefits
* Promotion prospects
* The person whom the job holder reports
* The person who reports to the job holder
All businesses like Sainsbury have a job description so people who are
applying for the job know what is involved in the job and what the pay
is and where the location is. The business can use this to measure
performance and is an advantage to both the applier and the business.
The other document is a person specification, this document shows what
the person needs for the job role.
The best-known method of drawing up person specification is called the
seven-point plan originally devised by Alec Rodger. This bases the
person specification upon seven separate groups of characteristics:
Physical health and appearance- this includes grooming, looks, dress
sense, voice, hearing and eyesight as well as general health matters.
Attainments- this includes educational qualifications such as GCSEs,
GNVQs, A levels and degrees and vocational qualifications such as NVQs
and job experience.
General intelligence- this is estimated by IQ tests and by assessments
of general reasoning ability.
Special aptitudes- what special skills does a person have? These
include skills with words, with numbers, with musical instruments,
with artistic technique and with mechanical equipment.
Interests- are they intellectual or practical or social or a mixture
of them all?
Disposition- this is an assessment of the person’s acceptability by
other people, leadership qualities, the person’s emotional stability
and self-reliance.
Circumstances- factors such as age whether single or married, whether
mobile or not.
Person specification was used to contribute towards the advertisement.
This document comes in handy for both business and applier. When the
applicant is applying for the job, he/she will know what person
qualities the organisation is looking for.
After the job specification and the person specification the HR
department will assemble an advert, which takes aspects from both
documents in order to attract people for the job.
Sainsbury draw up their own advertisement and then the newspaper types
up the final version.
Before writing up an advertisement the employer must determine exactly
what is wanted from the job being advertised. When you are writing up
an advertisement the following thing must be included:
Job description- what the job requires the person to do.
Type of person- what type of person is required for the job. It’s
illegal to specify a particular sex or someone of a particular racial
origin, but they are an exception (e.g. you could advertise for a
Chinese origin to work at a Chinese restaurant as a Chef).
Pay and conditions- this should state what the pay and conditions are.
Eg holidays, hours pension arrangements. Also should state that if it
is part time, fulltime, temporary or permanent.
Place of work- this should state the location of the job
How to apply- the advertisement should tell you whether you should
apply by telephone, application form or writing to the organisation.
Depth of detail-
Ethics and honesty-
Placing the advertisement-
After the advertisement the company will have to decide between using
a CV or an application form as well, each documents has its benefits
to each party selling the prospective employee to a new job.
Using the information from the application document, the business will
decide what people will get an interview at the company. To get more
information of the person that has been chosen for an interview, the
company will ask her or she.
At Sainsbury’s when a person has been recommended for a job than they
are placed in an introduction programme, this helps them know how the
company runs they business day to day and what their exact role will
be.
When there is a vacancy to be filled at Sainsbury the HRM department
will need to consider who should fill the vacancy and also several
factors will be recommended
If the department decides that they want to recruit within the
business then this becomes a benefit to the employee because he/she
will not need to go through induction training.
If the department decides to recruit outside the business then the
business will need to advertise the advert. Where the advert will be
placed will need to be considered by the HRM department eg job centre,
newspaper or on the Internet ect. Sainsbury mainly has application
forms within the local stores for people who want to apply.
After Sainsbury have decided whether to advertise after selecting that
the vacancy should be filled externally then the HRM department will
need to select their employees. This procedure is done through an
interview where the interviewer goes through the application forms to
see what people will be good for the job.
When planning an interview, the HRM department at Sainsbury will need
to be prepared for what questions they need to ask. Interviewing is
the final stage of process and are arranged for all kind of jobs, the
interviewer must ask ‘what are my objectives’? What am I looking for?
And how will I phrase the questions I am going to ask? In the
interview the applicant can also ask questions to the interviewer
about the business also about his promotional opportunities, holiday
arrangement within the company. When conducting an interview the legal
requirements on legislation will need to be considered, such as Sex
discrimination, Race discrimination and Disability discrimination
Acts. The person giving the interview cannot ask different questions
to a disabled person then he/she will to a non- disabled person
because that will be discriminating. So to be fair, Sainsbury will
need to write out a set of questions to ask all the applicants
regarding their sex, race or on their disability.
The recruitment team have to make sure that the applicants who where
not successful are not felt discriminated in any kind of way and the
applicant who is found successful will need to be informed. Sainsbury
have a panel of interviewers who meet the applicant together so the
interviewer uses their opinions the selection procedure.
E4- TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT.
They are two types of training methods they are on the job training
and of the job training also there is induction training.
On the job training is when the employees train at their work place.
For many people they enjoy the direct link with their job and can see
more clearly how relevant the training is to the performance of the
job.
Off the job training is when you attend courses at a college or mat a
local training centre away form the work place. This type training is
important to an employee’s career development as well as being an
integral part of a training programme.
Sainsbury prefer to use on the job training because it is more
suitable for their workplace and you can see how their working
progress is at work. It also increases the number of productivity.
Induction training is for new employees to the organisation. The
successful job applicant at Sainsbury is provided with some sort of
induction training. This is very useful programme for both, business
and employee.
When you are training you could gain non-transferable skills or
transferable skills. Non-transferable skills are extremely specific to
the job held area a little use in any other job. Transferable skills
can be used in a wide variety of other jobs later on. People with
transferable skills are more useful to employees because they are
quicker at learning and cheap to train.
Training is important to all business because it keeps the staff up
dated and increases motivation and efficiency also gives a good
customer service.
E5 PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
As I said before Sainsbury usually gives an induction training when
some one new comes to the job. Then after the induction training
Sainsbury appraisals the staff to see if they made most of their
training and whether they should be promoted.
Performance management is the systematic process of monitoring the
results of activities; collecting and analyzing performance
information to track progress toward planning results
Sainsbury agree that employees are their most important assets and
need to be treated fairly. The good performance of employee’s
management s has an effect on the organization's success, in terms of
profitability.
Sainsbury give out financial rewords to most people who complete the
training programme. Training is designed to keep employees motivated
and is convinced to complete their training by rewarding them with
financial gain.
Motivation comprises of the need for employees and controls their
action. Using motivation techniques can improve productivity and
customer service. Also employee satisfaction leads to good service
that leads to customer satisfaction.
Maslows- Hierarchy of needs
This theory is based on meeting staff needs with in the workplace and
suggests that meeting their needs can lead to be fill are: -
Self- fulfilment- researching your full potential
Self-esteem needs- status and recognition, achievement and
independence
Social needs- love, friendship, a sense of belonging part of a team
Safety needs- protection against danger, fair treatment, job security
Physiological needs- food, rest and shelter
Mc Gregor- Theory x and theory y
They are two types of main types of managers. Theory x managers tend
to have the point of view that the average dislikes and will try to
avoid it. Therefore the managers must control direct and punish them
to get them to work towards business objectives.
Theory y suggests that the ordinary person does not dislike work; it
all depends on the conditions in which the work takes place. If people
are committed to objectives, they will be motivated towards achieving
them the biggest motivation factor is the personal satisfaction of
completing the job.
Tailors- principles of scientific management
Managers assumed that people were alike and that their motivations
were relatively simple. It suggests that, their managers could program
workers actions. Taylor believed that monetary rewards were an
important motivating factor. Higher rates of pay could encourage
increased output.
Hertzberg’s- two-factory theory
This theory identifies a range of dissatisfiers and satisfiers
Dissatisfiers
Ø Low pay
Ø Poor working conditions
Ø Poor relationships between employees
Ø Unfair management
Ø Lack of growth and development
He suggests that these types of factors could lead to poor level of
output and increase sickness levels. He identifies that the following
factors would motivate employees.
Satisfiers
Ø Recognition of effort and performance
Ø The nature of the job
Ø Sense of achievement
Ø Opportunity for promotion.
E6 TRAINING
Sainsbury has a comprehensive range of training and development
programmes available to employees. These cover both technical
competency and skills training and are linked to performance
management and carer development structures. SSL offers ranges of
programmes leading to a national vocational qualification (NVQ) to its
employees, including retail operations, administration, and customer
service and craft bakery, all at level 2. Structured training
programmes include the retail scheme (RTS), an NVQ programme and new
deal. About 2 percent of the employees on training programmes are
funded through government training scheme. Including RTS trainees, NVQ
trainees aged between 18 and 24, and new deal clients.
Sainsbury works with the national training partnership (NTP) to obtain
government funding for trainees across the country. There are 25
training and enterprise councils (TECs) involved in funding trainees
through this arrangement. They are 56 government-funded trainees
working towards NVQ level 2 in retailing at the time of inspection. A
further four trainees were working towards an NVQ in administration at
level 2 and four trainees were working towards NVQ in bakery. There
are seven New Deal clients. Sainsbury has a contract5 with the
employment service under the large organisation element of New Deal.
The national training organisation predicts that there will be a huge
growth in the number of employment opportunities available in the
sector until the year 2006.
The training programme will last two years and offers a number of
placements. After 18 months you can self-select for a 6-month place in
an area based on your experience over the past year and a half. If
trainees want to complete their functional programme then all
graduates benefit from a best in class 2-year training and development
offer which enables them to build and develop their personal and
management skills.
